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If you have type 1 diabetes, there is still time to contact your GP to get your free flu jab.

The NHS has once again launched the seasonal flu vaccination programme for groups that are at particular risk, including those with type 1 diabetes.

For most people, flu is unpleasant but not serious, and recovery is quick. However, to be safe, the vaccine is offered free to pregnant women and anyone with certain medical conditions including type 1 diabetes.

Recent figures from the government show that many individuals eligible for the free vaccine are yet to take up the offer.

Dr Richard Pebody, head of flu surveillance at the HPA said: “If you are in one of the clinical at risk groups, you still have time to get vaccinated this season. Seasonal flu can be very serious and results in between two and five thousand excess deaths each year. Please ensure you take up the offer as soon as possible to reduce your risk of serious complications from flu.”

For more information visit the NHS website

Getting Sorted self-care workshops

'Getting Sorted: Our Way' is a self-care programme for young people aged 12-17 with type 1 diabetes. The unique programme has been developed ‘by young people for young people’ to meet the needs of 12-17 year olds and enable them to manage their condition.

‘Getting Sorted’ sets out to engage young people at every stage of their development. At the centre of the project, young facilitators with type 1 diabetes deliver a sequence of five informative, fun and interactive workshops. These are designed to help young people increase their understanding of the disease, self-manage their diabetes, and thereby reduce the risk of long-term complications.

The 'Getting Sorted' workshops are delivered by trained young facilitators who themselves have a long-term health condition. The workshops focus on the impact the condition has on a young person's life based on the three key principles of:

Self-efficacy: young people should be encouraged to take responsibility for their lives and their condition.

Empowerment: young people should be enabled to develop knowledge, skills, understanding and motivation in relation to their condition. 


Engagement: young people should be fully engaged in the process of managing their condition in a pro-active way.

The workshops are being delivered throughout the Yorkshire and Humber region. To find out more, please contact Lorna Galdas on 07769 239594 or email gettingsorted@leedsmet.ac.uk

The gift of type 1 diabetes research

Birthday girl Ann Mason from Brampton, Chesterfield has been spreading her happy returns further afield this year, as the sprightly 70 year old has chosen to present the £500 she received in lieu of gifts to JDRF. 

This amount combines birthday money with additional donations from the Chesterfield Scarsdale Inner Wheel Club. The generous donation coincides with World Diabetes Awareness Month, which is running throughout November.

As a grandmother of five and active Inner Wheel Club member, retiree Ann has worked tirelessly with fellow members to help generate funds for JDRF. So far various fundraising event have raised £2,000. The money raised will help support vital research into finding the cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

The Chesterfield Scarsdale Inner Wheel Wives of Rotarians support a variety of nominated charities. However, Ann’s personal reasons for getting involved with JDRF stem from the fact that her four year old grandson Toby has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Fiona’s marathon efforts to find the cure for type 1 diabetes

Receiving the birthday cheque and representing the JDRF Birmingham office was volunteer Fiona Finnegan from Derby. Herself an active fundraiser, Fiona will be running the 2012 London Marathon to help add further funds to the charity collection, despite never having run at this level previously. With five months to go before her big run, Fiona has already raised £4,000, and hopes that this figure will increase.

Commenting on Ann’s generous donation, Fiona said: ‘Ann’s gift to JDRF is so kind and has moved us all. This is a present that will benefit children like Toby, and my own daughter Clare, helping fund research that hopefully leads to the cure for an affliction that challenges so many wonderful and brave children every day. Thinking of her generosity gives us all the motivation to strive to do more and we are extremely grateful to her and the members of the Inner Wheel for their work and support.’

Anyone interested in sponsoring Fiona’s gallant Virgin London Marathon 2012 run can do so via the website http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/FionaandSarah.

X Factor favourite Amelia Lily, who has type 1 diabetes, has spoken of her fear of the complications of type 1 diabetes, and her efforts to control her blood glucose levels under the pressure of performing each week in front of millions of people.

The 17 year old, who was diagnosed aged three, wants to use her new fame to raise awareness of the condition and show young people that it shouldn’t stop them achieving their dreams.

Quoted in today’s Mirror she said ‘Not a lot of people know what I am, but I would like to get it out and I'd like to help people, especially children, and show that you can still get on stage and perform.’

Blindness is a complication of type 1 diabetes and is caused by the effects of high blood glucose on the blood vessels to the eye. JDRF’s research programme is working on different ways to prevent and even reverse the onset of blindness.

Treating diabetic macular odema
A two-year UK study showed that by combining laser therapy with the drug Lucentis, which JDRF helped to develop, people who had developed macular oedema were able to see much better.

Diabetic macular oedema is the swelling in the center of the light-sensitive tissue in the eye, caused by damage to blood vessels in the back of the eye which also leads to abnormal growth of new vessels. The standard treatment for this condition, has been the same for the last 25 years: laser treatment to destroy areas of abnormal blood vessels. Lucentis works by blocking the effects of a protein called VEGF, which causes the tiny vessels in the eye to leak and promotes new vessel growth. The new trial demonstrated that combining treatment with Lucentis and laser treatment was much more effective at improving vision than laser therapy alone. JDRF is now working with a range of patient groups to get treatment with Lucentis approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

Preventing complications
The best way to reduce the risk of complications is to keep good blood glucose control. This is why JDRF is investing in the ‘artificial pancreas programme’.

There are lots of ways that you can support research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes. And remember, vote Amelia to win before 12 noon today!!

St Robert Southwell RC Primary School raises money for World Diabetes Day

On World Diabetes Day, pupils from St Robert Southwell RC Primary School in Slough Lane, Kingsbury paid £1 to wear blue clothes in support of JDRF and raised £300. The school’s fundraising events, which will help support vital type 1 diabetes research, were also reported by the local paper. 

We would like to thank the pupils and staff from St Robert Southwell RC Primary School for raising money for JDRF.

On 25 April 2012, JDRF will hold its first ever Type 1 Parliament, a lobbying event at the Houses of Parliament where children and adults will ask the Government to work with JDRF and increase investment in research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes.

We have been overwhelmed by the staggering response to our invitation to apply to attend, and wanted to let everyone who has entered know that they should have received a letter confirming whether or not they have a place at the event. We also want to say a massive thank you to everyone who continues to work so hard to support our mission to cure type 1 diabetes and to encourage everyone to get involved with raising awareness in the run up to Type 1 Parliament.

Over 200 people applied for the 60 available places, and judges Adrian Sanders MP, Caroline Horwood, Diabetes Division Director at Healthcare company Sanofi and JDRF Chief Executive Karen Addington met in Parliament for the almost impossible task of selecting the 2012 delegates. We’d like to say thank you to Adrian, Caroline, Platinum Sponsors Sanofi, and also to Philip Dunn MP and Caroline Noakes MP, for their support of Type 1 Parliament.

Co-Chairs
Thirteen-year-old George Dove from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire has been chosen as Co-Chair of the lobbying event. George works tirelessly to spread the word about what it’s like living with type 1 diabetes. He was recently named Nottingham’s Young Person of the Year and since becoming involved with the charity has raised a staggering £35,000 to support research into the condition. Having spoken publicly about living with type 1 diabetes and why he supports JDRF in his mission to find the cure, George is well equipped to co-chair the type 1 Parliament event.

Sixteen year old Amy Wilton from Fareham, Hampshire will join George as Co-Chair of the event. Amy is a T1 Youth Ambassador who has represented JDRF by speaking at many of the charity's events including research Discovery Days and Walks to Cure Diabetes. Amy’s family does the Walk to Cure Diabetes each year too. Her mother Carole also plucked up the courage and participated in a sponsored sky dive with a friend to raise money to support JDRF’s vital research into finding the cure. Finally, in 2009 Amy travelled to Washington DC to be part of JDRF’s US Children’s Congress as the UK delegate.

Whether or not you are attending Type 1 Parliament, there is a lot that you can do to put type 1 diabetes research on the political map! Click here to see how you can get involved.

JDRF-funded researchers working as part of the Artificial Pancreas Consortium at Montpellier University Hospital in France and at the Universities of Padova and Pavia in Italy ran experiments with two patients in parallel.

Both patients attained near-normal glucose levels after spending a night outside hospital while their diabetes was automatically managed by a prototype artificial pancreas system. The patients were each asked to test the system by eating a meal in a restaurant and then spending a night in a hotel, all while using the device.

Eight more patients enrolled in the trial will begin outpatient testing in the coming weeks in Montpellier, France and in Padova, Italy.

Rachel Connor, Head of Research Communication at JDRF commented ‘This is brilliant news for people with type 1. Testing this system outside the hospital for the first time is an important milestone in the journey toward making the system available to people with type 1 around the world.’

It was announced yesterday that contestants who previously left the talent competition are being given the chance to win a place back on The X Factor Show after Frankie Cocozza has left. There will be a public vote in order to decide who should get the opportunity and we wanted to let you know how you can show your support to the talented singer Amelia Lily, who has type 1 diabetes.

Amelia has talked openly about living with type 1 diabetes and has been an inspiration to many of you, showing how the condition shouldn’t hold you back from achieving your dreams.

We were delighted when many of you showed her support when she was taking part in the live show by sending messages of good luck through JDRF. We would love for Amelia to be back on the X Factor so she can continue to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and make the general public more aware of the condition. If you want Amelia singing to win this Saturday, you can cast your vote by calling 0901 616 1302.

The day will mark a month of fundraising and awareness raising activities, and is aimed to make sure that issues surrounding type 1 are not lost amongst general ‘diabetes’ messages. JDRF affiliates around the world will be coming together to mark this day and encourage supporters like you to get involved throughout November. Here in the UK we want you to GO BIG, go bold and Go Blue.

GO BIG
How did you get involved last year? Can you top it? We want to make an even bigger noise and raise more funds for research than ever before.

Go Bold
Will you help us raise awareness of type 1 diabetes this month? We’ll be posting 30 finds for 30 days online to highlight a different JDRF research project each day. Help spread the word by posting them on your social networking profile. And if you have a bit more time, why not get involved with the 1 Campaign.

Go Blue
Supporters from around the UK will be helping raise funds throughout November by Going Blue in a variety of ways. It’s not too late to get involved, order your free fundraising guide here.

T1Day is the start of a month packed with activities. So whether you raise awareness, Go Blue or come along to one of our Type 1 Discovery Days you’ll be helping put type 1 on the map this November.

Katy Pickering, Head of Donor Development, said, ‘November is one of our most important months for raising funds and awareness. Many supporters have already been in touch to let us know about the activities they are planning. T1Day is a great way to kick off the month and draw attention to type 1 issues.’